From L&S Dean Karl Scholz

Dean Karl Scholz chats with a student during the opening celebration for the Career Kickstart Learning Community in Ogg Hall (Photo by Sarah Morton)

In 2013, we launched the Letters & Science Career Initiative, an effort funded entirely through private donations. The goal: to radically transform career services by giving liberal arts students the resources to explore, plan and act strategically early in their college careers. The results have drawn other great public research universities to our campus to see how it’s done. Through the L&S Career Initiative, we aim to lead the nation in career services among public universities.

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We knew that students and their parents were hearing that the liberal arts was a ‘luxury,’ and that they’d be better off studying fields where the job market is ‘hot’ right now. But we also knew that wasn’t what employers were saying.

A recent survey conducted by the Association of American Colleges and Universities found that two-thirds of those employers wanted college graduates with broad knowledge in the liberal arts, expert knowledge in their specific field and an electronic portfolio.

We see this play out every year. Hundreds of employers attend our career fairs and heavily recruit our liberal arts graduates from across a wide range of majors.

The biggest predictors of successful job placement

Actual work experience (such as through an internship)

Ability to articulate skills

Flexibility, problem-solving and critical thinking on the job

The L&S Career Initiative prepares students for all three, plus mobilizes our formidable alumni to act as mentors and guides.

University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers are studying whether video games can boost kids’ empathy, and to understand how learning such skills can change neural connections in the brain.
“The realization that these skills are actually trainable with video games is important because they are predictors of emotional well-being and health throughout life, and can be practiced anytime — with or without video games,” says Tammi Kral, a UW–Madison graduate student in UW-Madison Department of Psychology who led the research at the Center for Healthy Minds.
https://news.wisc.edu/a-video-game-can-change-the-brain-may-improve-empathy-in-middle-schoolers/